sharn

i posted in the welcome one too about the fungus. just wondering if you know how big those balas are going to get? they average 12" when adults (look stunning at that size too) and are fast fish, they will eventually take out your smaller fish and you may find they out-grow the tank. not to worry though, its a great excuse for another large tank :lol: a 125 should suit em depending on how many you have and you might be able to put a few larger fish in with them

im not too up on mollies but perhaps they are two males?

ich (whitespot) is always present in the aquarium, its only when fish get stressed from moving, water params, bullying etc that the ich will take hold as the immune system is down slightly. keep in mind formalin will kill your bio-filters so you may go thru a mini cycle after that. if its the 3% (or 5, cant remember) store bought stuff im told that isnt too effective but am unsure if it would do anything to your bio-filters in such small amounts. when treating (i would advise going back to the whitespot cure once the formalin has been w/c'd out of the tank and given a few days free of meds, mixing meds can really hurt your fish) up your temp a few degrees more than normal, perhaps 27C or so (neons dont like the high heat too much so be careful). this will speed up the life cycle. treat as reccomended on the pack but make sure to keep up the treatment for around a week after the last spot has gone off the fish as the un-hatched cysts in the gravel will open up and re-infect your tank if there are no meds present. do a good gravel vacumn each w/c too to try and get some of those cysts out. helping to find the cause of the outbreak will help too. have you introduced any new fish without quarentine? any water problems? aggression problems? etc etc

welcome michele, always neat to have members from other countries if its around/in the mouth area i would do some research into 'cotton mouth', i beleive its quite easy to fix in the early stages and finding meds to deal with it shouldnt be a problem.

sorry to hear that Si i agree on the co2, it can do a range of things when pumped in in larger amounts.

interesting to learn, thanks richms i personally use 2 100W for my discus tank (220L, both heaters are near inlet/outlets). i split my heaters where possible and recently found it to pay off when one heater failed in my oscar tank (luckily i had the old back up to use) so its definatly worth the little extra cash to get two. when it comes down to it they can all crap out, you might spend $100 on some fancy top of the line heater to have it fail within a month where a $25 heater could work for years :-?

unsure how many he has left but NZ discus got a shipment in of wild caughts a while ago and i beleive he still has some left which you wouldnt see in your average shop.

angels will take out neons, not all of them do but some will (and they dont have to be full grown to try). i have only had one neon eater out of 6 angels ive kept. i wondered where my pack of neons were going (angel was killing em, BN eating the bodies before i noticed) and then found a neon one day with just his tummy bitten out i would suggest trying larger tetras, cardinals are a larger version of neons pretty much but are more pricey, rummies are stunning and also get bigger. of course there is all the larger tetras too (bleeding hearts etc)

what an intro- i love the long ones that actually explain something :lol: at your cat poop! your cat was probably thinking 'gee, what did i do right to deserve such great, colourful kitty litter' :lol: good to hear all ended well though

did your neon get pinecone like before it died (scales sticking out)? it may have been an egg bound female also. keep in mind angels are cichlids and therefore can be bullies, some are super placid but some think they can take out fish 5 times their size :lol:

i love fancy plecs, just dont have the cash to get em i think rcons are butterflies and medusas?

red gills and flashing could very well be gill flukes however fish dont normally get emaciated from them unless its quite far gone and they start spitting their food (due to irriation) instead of eating it. sadly there are alot of guppy problems that have no explanation these days

if this is for your discus tank i would get an SS heater (IMO). i have been told by an electronics guru that they cannot (ever, impossible, 0 chance) fail on as they have an electronic thermostat which means no bimetal strip to stick on, fish prefer to get cold and can stand that better than to cook :lol: i personally have aqua one ones on my discus and oscar tanks. the problem alot of discus keepers have with heaters is their failing as they are set at higher temps so a good heater is worth the investment. Jager is also another good brand as alan said

alot of neons are imported overseas from mass bred farms and come in in not so great health which is why many of them die quickly. how long had you had them for? water changes will not stress your fish at all if the temp change isnt too drastic (even though cold water changes are used to help breed fish sometimes, with problems present its best to try and keep things even) and it is dechlorinated. also check your tap and tank waters ph to see if they are drastically different. white spot is pretty easy to treat when it is in its early stages. make sure to siphon the gravel well each w/c as this is where the unhatched cysts lie. upping the temp will increase the lifecycle and elimination times. make sure to keep your treatment up for at least one week after the last spot is seen to make sure unhatched cysts dont open up and re-infect your tank. if using meds like whitespot cure etc be careful with dosing when plecos, clown loaches etc (sensitive fish) are in the tank, normally a half dose is used with them, some people find their fish are fine with full doses but some dont go so well

good luck getting genuine altums, aint many in the country i beleive and they demanded extremely high prices. i wonder if pet stores would be able to get the proper ones or just those wild scalares or whatever they are

my preference goes fresh, frozen then freeze dried. i get worms and bugs all the time for my fish. locusts and praying mantis' for my oscar in summer as their wild diet consists of around 60% insects. worms just seem to be everyones favourite, the cories and apistos go nuts over them and the discus think its their last supper when they get them :lol: most of the other fresh foods (like meats) go off quickly which is why i prefer frozen for them. dont like freeze dried at all, i dont like how they always float as my fish arent surface feeders

personally i have had nothing but bad experiences with jebos and i know many others have also. aqua one is one of the better cheaper brands IMO and my 5 all hold their temp well (i have two stainless aqua ones). everyone has had bad and good experiences with most brands so do some googling for reviews on the different brands to come to your own conclusion

kudos to you for not letting them risk being bred by others! hope someone can sort them out for ya

fishy-t, i 100% agree, colour strains is one thing but hybridism is not right IMO. yeah they might look neat (flowerhorn, parrots etc) but when you consider their effects they have on the hobby its not something i want to help, or buy into. dont get me wrong, hybrids can have great personalities, but in no way are they better than any other true species. flowerhorn are my main moan when it comes to this, they are a mix of many things and have nearly wiped out pure Trimac in the hobby altogether due to unedcuated cross breeding and the general lack of demand cause FH are 'more colour and lucky', lucky my $%^! FH have been bred to be able to withstand many conditions and have infested and ruined water ways all over the world. alot of people think theyre more colourful and more personable but they dont really stand a chance against some of the pure species of fish. i can show you some pictures of pure Trimac and when compared to some of those FH you can hardly tell them apart, they look so similar now.

i run around 900L or so worth of tanks in my bedroom (which helps cause when i close the door and windows it really heats up) and that costs me, in winter, an extra $30 on average so its not really that expensive at all. keep in mind you can help reduce costs by putting poly around the back and sides of your tank. also your heater is not on 24/7 so if you are calculating how much power you would use probably only count it as being on for 12 hours a day or so.

docking is extremely common and for those who frequent quite alot of overseas sites dyed and docked fish come up a fair amount. parrot fish are often the ones subject to dying/docking, when docked they are called 'heart parrots' because of their shape and can be all colours of the rainbow. i can not express in words how sick this makes me feel and those who know me well can imagine what i would do to those people if ever i came across them :lol: it is one thing to create different colour strains and mutations like blackmoor etc but to cut pieces off a fish in order to pass it off as a new strain can only be described as *edits foul language out* rediculous. there are a few types of dying used these days with people coming up with more nobrainers every year. taken from http://z14.invisionfree.com/RECICHLIDUS ... wtopic=892 this is one of those things that really gets me angry, its totally unnecessary (how bout we go cut some of their arms off?) and just goes to show how stupid the human race can really be

IMO i aint sold on MH (which is the reason i wont get it) i have seen more successful tanks on plain fluros (even if they do have like 6 tubes :lol: ) than on MH, MH are expensive and create alot of heat and if you dont have the perfect balance in your tank your gonna get algae problems like nothing else. i say put your money into extra fluros (perhaps someone can source some T5's for ya?) for a tank of that size, they work out cheaper and are easier to deal with.

ive got like three in the 'show us your discus' thread :lol: my camera isnt that great and the fish are too rebellious (darn things been listening to my death metal LOL)

http://www.simplydiscus.com/forum/foods ... e+spectrum even if it was here i wouldnt be buying it because of how that marketer is (RD)

tigs are neat, TSN are not :lol: i wouldnt mind seeing more of these out there going to people that knew what they were getting into (whole large fish small tank deal with newbies) however if TSN were allowed i think that would be a sad day, considering they can get to the length of an average 12 year old seen some pics of a 5 footer on MFK. hope ya tig doesnt get taken off ya they are neat fish and it seems like theyre one of those fish that have no reason to be banned